Opposition to GM Food

GM Food

Opposition to GM crops is based on ignorance. GM technology has the potential to solve the world's food problems by producing greater yields and nutrient-enriched crops and should be globally adopted. Do you agree? Support your view with close reference to your readings.

Genetically modified foods have been developed from genetically modified organisms. Scientists have modified their DNA to give them special characteristics that naturally grown crops do not have. There are many concerns over some of the unintended results from using GM food. Those people who support of GM food claim that it can ease the problem of world hunger by providing higher yields of crops with higher levels of nutrients. However, there are a number of risks that have been mentioned by scientists that may cause problems for human health and the environment. This essay will argue that GM foods are not a good solution to world hunger. It will discuss some of the issues with GM foods, and then it will discuss some of the potential benefits of nutrient-enriched crops such as GM Golden Rice.

GM food is not a suitable solution to world hunger because it does not actually address the cause of world hunger today. Currently there is a sufficient amount of food for the world's population. The problem is that there is a surplus of food in developed nations, and not enough food in developing nations. This problem of the distribution of world food resources will not be solved by producing more food, regardless of whether it is made from GM crops or not (G Scrinis, 2000). The main cause of the food problems in the world is poverty (Lappe, Moore, Collins, Rosset 1998). This means that there is food available in these countries but many people are unable to afford it. In summary, GM food will not be able to the world's food problems because they are caused by distribution issues and poverty, not a shortage of food.

Additionally, GM food should not be globally accepted yet because there are still concerns about how safe it is for human consumption. A number of scientific experiments have shown that there can be some harmful side effects to GM foods. Companies that are selling GM products claim that there are no dangers in using their products, however, independent scientists have done experiments to test GM foods and some have found that they are dangerous for both animals and humans. One example is the research by Dr. Arpad Pusztai (Phelps B and Wilson K 2007). In his research, he fed rats some GM potatoes and others naturally grown potatoes. He found that the ones that were fed GM potatoes became very sick and some of them died. The rats that were fed the naturally grown potatoes were healthy. In summary, GM foods should not be accepted to be eaten around the world until it is proven to be safe for human consumption.

There are, however, some possible benefits that could be taken from using GM food in the future. There are many diseases and sicknesses in the world that are caused by a lack of vitamins. It is possible to cure some of these sicknesses by increasing the amount of vitamins people eat. One way to do this is to modify foods to have higher amounts of vitamins using GM. One example of this is GM Golden Rice, which is modified to increase the level of vitamin A. This is beneficial because there are many young children who are lacking vitamin A, and they can address this by eating Golden Rice (Tribe D 2005). In summary, there are some benefits that can be taken from GM food in the future but it is important that they prove it to be safe before it can be accepted.

In conclusion, this essay has argued that GM foods are not a solution to the world's food problems, because they are caused by poverty. It has also argued that GM foods have some benefits that can be taken in the future, but it is important that they are proven to be safe before they are accepted in the world.

Reference List:

Scrinis G (2000), ‘The Precise Problem with GM Food'

Phelps. B and Wilson K (2007), ‘We can keep Australia GE-free' in Gene Ethics Working For a GE-Free Future

This essay and 7,150 others are only available to our members!

We are the world's most loved study website. Better still - membership is free.

Error:

Name

Email address

By registering, you agree to receive marketing materials from UKEssays.

Please be aware that the free essay that you were just reading was not written by us. This essay, and all of the others available to view on the website, were provided to us by students in exchange for services that we offer. This relationship helps our students to get an even better deal while also contributing to the biggest free essay resource in the UK!

Request Removal

If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have the essay published on the UK Essays website then please click on the link below to request removal:

Please be aware that the free essay that you were just reading was not written by us. This essay, and all of the others available to view on the website, were provided to us by students in exchange for services that we offer. This relationship helps our students to get an even better deal while also contributing to the biggest free essay resource in the UK!